The present invention relates to component mounting apparatus and method for automatically mounting a variety of components such as electronic components onto a printed circuit board or the like, and a component mounting equipment including the apparatuses.
Generally, in an electronic component mounting apparatus, a number of component supply means are mounted in parallel to one another on a component supply table. In a component mounting stage, the component supply means are successively positioned in a specified component supply position according to a sequence of mounting components while moving the component supply table in a direction in which the component supply means are arranged in parallel. Then, each of the components at the component supply means is taken out by suction by a mounting head section, and the components are transferred to a circuit board positioned in the circuit board positioning section to be subjected to a component mounting process.
This type of conventional component mounting apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. 6 showing a perspective view of it and FIG. 7 showing a schematic plan view of it. In FIG. 6, at the front of an apparatus body 1 is provided a board positioning section 4 for positioning a circuit board P supplied from a board supply means 2 in a mounting position, and the circuit board P mounted with the required components in the board positioning section 4 is discharged by a board discharge means 3. On the other hand, at the rear of the apparatus body 1 is provided a component supply section 7, and a rotary type mounting head section 8 is provided between the component supply section 7 and the aforementioned board positioning section 4 as shown in FIG. 7.
In the component supply section 7, two component supply tables 10 and 11 are laterally movably provided independently of each other on a guide rail 9. The component supply tables 10 and 11 are mounted with a number of component supply means 12 arranged in parallel to one another in a direction in which the component supply tables 10 and 11 move. There is illustrated generally a so-called parts cassette as the component supply means 12, and it will be simply described below. That is, electronic components of an identical type are stored and arranged at regular intervals on a carrier tape while being wound around a reel 13 as covered with a cover tape. By drawing out the carrier tape from the reel 13 to feed it at a pitch equal to the storage intervals of the components and taking up the cover tape, the electronic component located at the leading end is positioned in a component supply position A opposite to a component suction head 14 of the mounting head section 8.
Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 7, the mounting head section 8 is constructed by providing a plurality of component suction heads 14 at regular angular intervals on an identical circle of a rotary table (not shown) provided rotatably around a vertical axis. Each component suction head 14 is designed to suck a component by vacuum suction means. Upon intermittently rotating the rotary table, it is stopped in steps in the component supply position A and a component mounting position B in order to concurrently perform receiving of each component from the component supply means 12 and mounting of each component onto the circuit board P. While one component supply table 10 is supplying components, the other component supply table 11 that is retreating in a standby position performs changing of component supply means 12 and replenishing of components thereby achieving preparation so that the component mounting apparatus can be operated continously.
In recent years, there has been a growing trend in that the types of circuit boards P to be manufactured and the types of components to be mounted on the circuit boards P are increasing. In order to cope with the above, be one solution to be considered is to increase the number of component supply means 12 on be mounted to the component supply tables 10 and 11. However, in such a case, the component supply tables 10 and 11 are to be elongated sidewise in order to increase the number of component supply means 12. Consequently, the length of the entire component supply section 7 becomes very long, and this leads to a degraded space utilization efficiency, reducing the productivity per floor area.
A more important issue is that the component supply tables 10 and 11 are fed at a pitch in accordance with taking out the components by the mounting head section 8, and therefore, the following inconvenience occurs. That is, when the component supply tables 10 and 11 increase in weight due to the increase of their lengths, not only is a greater drive power required to move the component supply tables 10 and 11 but also the inertial force of the component supply tables 10 and 11 increases. Therefore, vibration in feeding the component supply tables 10 and 11 at a pitch significantly increases. Consequently, it is impossible to increase the component supply rate, or the component mounting operation speed.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a component mounting apparatus and method capable of increasing the component mounting operation speed without dimensionally increasing the whole apparatus even when the types of boards and the number of components to be mounted on each board increase.
In accomplishing these and other objects, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting apparatus comprising:
a pair of component supply tables on which components are accommodated and which are arranged on both sides of a board mounting position where a board is positioned;
a first mounting head section for successively picking up the components at one of the component supply tables and thereafter successively mounting the picked-up components onto the board; and
a second mounting head section for successively picking up the components at the other of the component supply tables and thereafter successively mounting the picked-up components onto the board,
wherein the first and second mounting head sections are independently operated.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the component mounting apparatus as described in the first aspect, wherein the first and second mounting head sections are controlled mutually in operation in accordance with a timing at which, when one of them carries out a component picking-up operation for picking up the components from the component supply table, the other of them carries out a component mounting operation for mounting the picked-up components onto the board.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the component mounting apparatus as described in the first aspect, wherein one of the first and second mounting head section has component suction nozzles sucking the components at one time.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the component mounting apparatus as described in the second aspect, wherein one of the first and second mounting head section has component suction nozzles sucking the components at one time.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting equipment comprising:
a plurality of component mounting apparatuses each of which was described in the description of the first aspect,
wherein a board transfer path along which the board is supplied to the board mounting position of the apparatus and discharged from the board mounting position of the apparatus by a board transfer device is provided so that the board transfer path connects the board mounting positions of the component mounting apparatuses, and the component supply tables of the component mounting apparatuses are arranged on both sides of the board mounting positions in the board transfer path.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting equipment comprising:
a plurality of component mounting apparatuses each of which was described in the description of the second aspect,
wherein a board transfer path along which the board is supplied to the board mounting position of the apparatus and discharged from the board mounting position of the apparatus by a board transfer device is provided so that the board transfer path connects the board mounting positions of the component mounting apparatuses, and the component supply tables of the component mounting apparatuses are arranged on both sides of the board mounting positions in the board transfer path.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided the component mounting equipment as described in the fifth aspect, wherein the components to be mounted onto the single board are all distributed into groups by type, and the components of the groups are accommodated in the component supply tables of the component mounting apparatuses as assigned thereto.
According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the component mounting equipment as described in the sixth aspect, wherein the components to be mounted onto the single board are all distributed into groups by type, and the components of the groups are accommodated in the component supply tables of the component mounting apparatuses as assigned thereto.
According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a component mounting method comprising steps of:
picking up by a first mounting head section components from one of a pair of component supply tables on which the components are accommodated and which are arranged on both sides of a board mounting position where a board is positioned, the first mounting head section successively picking up the components at one of the component supply tables;
thereafter successively mounting the components picked up by the first mounting head section onto the board;
picking up by a second mounting head section components from the other of the pair of component supply tables, the second mounting head section successively picking up the components at the other of the component supply tables; and
thereafter successively mounting the components picked up by the second mounting head section onto the board,
wherein the picking-up and mounting steps of the first mounting head section and the picking-up and mounting steps of the second mounting head section are independently carried out.
According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the component mounting method as described in the ninth aspect, wherein the picking-up step of the first mounting head section and the mounting step of the second mounting head section are carried out at the same time, and the mounting step of the first mounting head section and the picking-up step of the second mounting head section are carried out at the same time.
According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided the component mounting method as described in the ninth aspect, wherein in a component mounting equipment comprising a plurality of component mounting apparatuses each of which comprises the first and second mounting head sections and the pair of component supply tables between which a board transfer path along which the board is supplied to the board mounting position of the apparatus and discharged from the board mounting position of the apparatus by a board transfer device is provided so that the board transfer path connects the board mounting positions of the component mounting apparatuses, and the component supply tables of the component mounting apparatuses are arranged on both sides of the board mounting positions in the board transfer path,
the picking-up and mounting steps of the first mounting head section and the picking-up and mounting steps of the second mounting head section are sequentially carried out.
According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the component mounting method as described in the eleventh aspect, wherein the picking-up step of each of the first mounting head sections and the mounting step of each of the corresponding second mounting head sections are carried out at the same time, and the mounting step of each of the first mounting head sections and the picking-up step of each of the corresponding second mounting head sections are carried out at the same time.
According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the component mounting equipment as described in the eleventh aspect, wherein the components to be mounted onto the single board are all distributed into groups by type, and the components of the groups are accommodated in the component supply tables of the component mounting apparatuses as assigned thereto.
According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the component mounting equipment as described in the twelfth aspect, wherein the components to be mounted onto the single board are all distributed into groups by type, and the components of the groups are accommodated in the component supply tables of the component mounting apparatuses as assigned thereto.
With the above arrangement, the component supply table is installed fixedly, and therefore, it becomes free of vibration regardless of the number of mounted component supply means which can be mounted thereon. The mounting head section is a robot type which sucks a plurality of components from the component supply table at one time and thereafter successively mounts the components to specified portions of the board. Therefore, even when the number of components to be mounted on a board increases, the component mounting operation speed can be remarkably increased further than in the conventional apparatus in which the component supply table is fed at a pitch with respect to the rotary type mounting head section.
Furthermore, components can be mounted by the two of the first and second mounting head sections onto the board positioned in a single board mounting position, and therefore, the component mounting operation speed can be further increased.
With the above arrangement of the fifth and sixth aspects and the eleventh and twelfth aspects, by mounting different components on the component supply tables installed at each of the component mounting apparatuses, the component supply tables are inevitably arranged on both sides of the board transfer path along it even when the types and the number of components to be mounted onto the board increase. Therefore, the equipment does not dimensionally increase as a whole without expanding significantly in the direction of the board transfer path. Furthermore, the mounting head sections of the component mounting apparatuses operate at high speed and the component supply tables are fixedly installed, and therefore, the component mounting operation speed can be increased.
With the above arrangement of the thirteenth and fourteenth aspects, when the types of boards are increased, the equipment can cope with it only by replacing a specified one of the component supply tables installed at the respective component mounting apparatuses with a component supply table mounted with components of the required type.